Refunking Rachel Berry
by Lil Drop Of Magic
Summary: 'Rachel likes to act like she's sure of everything she's doing but Matt's pretty sure that's all it is; an act.' Matt helps Rachel get her funky side back. Spoilers for 'Funk' Mild Matt/Rachel
1. Chapter 1

Hi, so instead of writing my other fics I've written this one (don't worry the others will be worked on very soon). It was going to be a one shot but I really wanted to get it out before 'Journey' and I have to go to work soon so it's going to be a little ficlet instead. :)

This fic was born because there aren't enough Matt/Rachel (or Mike/Rachel for that matter) fics out there and they looked so cute dancing in 'Funk'.

As you can probably guess, this takes place during Episode 1x21 'Funk'.

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Glee' world.

* * *

Matt turns in curiosity at the sound of multiple car engines starting up nearby. He frowns at the sight of a half dozen of those Vocal Adrenaline vehicles cruising out of McKinley's parking lot. What were those bastards doing back on school grounds?

Matt isn't really a fan of swearing (he leaves that sort of thing to Puck) but Vocal Adrenaline deserve a little bad language after what they did the other day. Okay, so all they physically did was sing a song and cover their choir room in toilet paper but _psychologically_ they've done a lot more.

The whole of New Directions are pretty depressed and more than a little pysched out ahead of Regionals.

Not only do Vocal Adrenaline have St. James back, but Jesse will have told the Carmel High glee club everything he knows about them; their strengths, weaknesses, set list, costumes, back up set list, allergies. _Everything_. So basically, New Directions have to start from scratch.

And talking of Jesse St. James…that guy has completely messed up their female lead. Yes, they'd all been pretty sure that Jesse was a spy, but it was still totally harsh of him to announce it in front of everyone and completely break Rachel's heart. Sure, Rachel could be a little annoying and crazy at times with her determination to be the best but she was also caring, passionate, gorgeous and a total sweetheart. And she didn't deserve that. Jesse St. James was a douche. Simple.

He decides that his lunch can wait and letting his curiosity get the better of him, Matt walks in the direction that the Vocal Adrenaline cars came from. He sees Rachel standing in the middle of the lot. He's behind her so he can't see her face but he notices her shoulders are hunched. It takes him a couple of seconds to see why.

She's _covered_ in egg; it's in her hair, splattered across her back and dripping down to where a dozen egg shells lie broken on the floor.

Still a little in shock at what he's seeing, Matt rushes forwards, not caring if he steps in any of the egg covering the tarmac. As he gets closer he can see her body shaking and he selfishly hopes that she's not crying because he's no good with crying girls.

As her face comes into view he can see that she hasn't started crying yet but that might be because one of her eyes has been sort of stuck shut with egg yolk. Her open eye gives him such a sad look that it actually makes his chest hurt a little.

"Shit, Rachel, are you okay?" He mentally winces at his words. Of course she's not okay, idiot! She's just been pelted with eggs by a rival glee club!

He can see the revulsion on her face and he quickly roots through his backpack, managing to locate the pack of tissues he keeps in there for emergencies. (Puck always tells him he's going to 'grow a vagina' if he keeps carrying around tissues, but Matt thinks there's nothing wrong with being prepared.)

He takes one out of the packet for her and she takes it, wiping most of the egg off of her face. She scrunches the tissue up in her hand and mutters a tiny, "Thank you," that's so un-Rachel Berry like that it makes his chest hurt again.

He shrugs his jacket off and holds it towards her. "Come on," he says quietly, "take your jacket off and put this on." He picks a huge bit of egg shell out of her hair while she looks at him uncertainly. "I don't mind, honestly."

Rachel nods numbly and carefully picks her pink jacket off. She looks around, wondering what to do with it now and Matt takes it off of her, and hands her his own.

She starts blinking rapidly as she pushes her arms through the grey sleeves. The jacket's way too big for her and only the very tips of her fingers are visible beyond the cuffs.

She sniffs and then a couple of fat tears roll down her cheeks, quickly followed by two more.

Matt takes a small step forward and puts his arms around her tiny body. She starts full on sobbing and rests her head against his chest. He rubs her back soothingly as he thinks about what complete _fucking bastards_ Vocal Adrenaline are (this is no time to be polite).

He's only mildly uncomfortable with having Rachel Berry cry into his chest – he's just relieved that he found her and she didn't have to try and deal with this on her own.

A couple of minutes later her sobs subside and she pulls away from his embrace.

"I've got egg and tears on your shirt," she mumbles, looking thoroughly miserable. "I'm sorry, Matt."

"Hey, don't be silly, it's nothing to worry about." He replies honestly. He really couldn't care less about the stains on his clothes.

She gives him a weak smile and tucks a piece of egg soaked hair behind her ear.

"So, what happened?" he asks. He's pretty sure he already knows but it's better to get the facts. "You know, if you _want_ to tell me because you don't have to."

Rachel swallows thickly and looks forlornly at the ground. "Jesse phoned me. He told me to meet him here and I thought…I thought he was going to apologise, to change his mind." A single tear rolls down her cheek and she quickly wipes it away. "But when I got here some of the other members of Vocal Adrenaline threw eggs at me."

"And what did Jesse do?" Matt prompts.

Rachel sighs and pulls his jacket a little tighter around her body. "He just watched at first. But then he smashed one…right here," she whispers, pointing to her forehead.

"God, what a _douche_!" Matt growls, shaking his head in disbelief while Rachel nods, sadly. Jesse St. James definitely deserves an ass-kicking but right now, Matt's going to make sure that Rachel's okay.

"D'you wanna go see Mr. Schue, or Figgins, or somebody else to tell them what's happened?" He asks but Rachel shakes her head.

"I need to get the residue of these egg foetuses off of my body," she explains as she shudders.

"Egg foetuses?" he asks in confusion.

"These chicks will never be born now that they've been smashed on my person," she mumbles, looking tearful. He wants to explain that unless Vocal Adrenaline bought the eggs from a farm (unlikely) then those eggs would never have become chicks but he doesn't think she's going to listen to him right now.

"Right. Well, do you have a change of clothes here?" he asks.

Rachel shakes her head. "It's been nearly two months since the last time I was Slushied and I was optimistic that it wouldn't happen again so I haven't been bringing in a change of clothes for a few weeks now." She knows that was probably quite a foolish decision. She's Rachel Berry; she's going to get some sort of foodstuff thrown on her eventually. People just don't like her. She can feel her throat constricting at that depressing thought but she fights to push the tears away. Matt doesn't need to see her cry _again_.

So, instead she looks up at him and tries to smile. "Thank you for your concern, Matt, but I think I had better go home."

"I can give you a lift, if you like." He offers. "I've got a free straight after lunch."

"I'm sure you don't want egg inside your car, Matt and besides, I don't want to distract from your studying time."

He chuckles. "As if one free period's going to make a difference, Rach. And don't worry about the car – it's a hunk of junk and a little bit of egg isn't going to make a difference. Come on, how else are you going to get home?"

She considers this and knows he's her only option at the moment (unless she decides to call her Dads, but she really doesn't want them to know about this incident). She can't wait until she has a license and a car of her own and then she will have the independence to do whatever she likes.

She nods and offers him a genuine smile. "You're right, Matt, thank you, a lift would be lovely."

He smiles back and wraps an arm around her shoulders, directing her towards his car, her pink jacket still in his other hand.

* * *

A/N So that's part one. Next one'll probably be up tomorrow.

I had to watch the egg throwing scene back a couple of times so I was clear on what actually happened and each time Rachel runs towards Jesse I'm like 'Nooooooooooo, don't do it!'. My sister loves Jesse but I don't think she will after she's watched this episode.

Please let me know if you like!

Lots of love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXx


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Glee' world.

Wow guys! Thanks so much for the response already. I love you all!

* * *

They're pretty much silent on the journey to her house except for when she gives him directions.

Matt doesn't like the silence. He's so used to having Rachel talk constantly that having her sitting next to him all muted is really awkward and he doesn't have a clue what to say to make her feel better. No, really, what do you say to a vegan girl who's just been egged by her ex-boyfriend and his glee club?

"It's this one on the left with the big tree." She says and he dutifully pulls over in front of her house.

She unclips her seatbelt and gives him another little smile. He doesn't like those smiles; they're full of hurt and not at all like the megawatt grins she normally flashes when she's singing.

"If you give me your shirt at some point I'll get it dry cleaned for you along with your jacket," she informs him but he shakes his head.

"Seriously, Rachel, it's not a big deal."

"I insist Matt." She says, placing her hand on his arm (well, actually, it's just her fingertips because his jacket is too big for her, remember?) "It's the least I can do after what you've done for me today."

"Okay," he relents because he knows she won't. "You'll get it tomorrow morning."

She smiles (a slightly happier one this time) and says, "Thank you, Matt, for everything."

He shrugs. "That's what friends are for." Her smile widens (good). "Are you sure you don't want me to stick around so I can take you back to school?"

She shakes her head. "No, it's okay. By the time I get this out of my hair the school day will be nearly over and we don't have glee this afternoon."

"Well, I'll probably call you later, just to check up on you, okay?"

She nods and the smiles seem to be coming more frequently now. She opens the door and hops down to the pavement.

"Goodbye, Matt."

"See you tomorrow, Rach."

He watches her walk up the drive to her front door but frowns when she stops. She turns around and trots back towards him, looking embarrassed.

"What's the matter?" he asks.

"In my desire to get away from school it seems that I have forgotten to retrieve my key and other items from my locker." She informs him. She talks to the car door rather than to him and he can see the blush spreading over her cheeks.

"Oh," he says in reply. This makes things more difficult. She obviously wants to change out of her soiled clothes and wash the egg from her hair (Matt doesn't blame her. He would not be impressed if he had egg in his hair.) but she can't get into her home, nor does she have clothes to change into at school and she probably doesn't want the rest of the school to see her like this either. That only leaves one option, really.

"Hop back in," he instructs. "I'll take you to my house."

She looks up at him in shock and he decides to give a further explanation before she starts talking a mile a minute.

"I've got a little sister – she's in junior high but you look like you'd be around the same size. You can borrow some of her stuff to get changed in and then I can take you back to school."

"Matt I can't take a shower in a house I've never been in before it's…inappropriate!" she cries, looking at him as though he's crazy.

"It's not like I'm going to be in the shower with you!" he replies, raising his eyebrows and she blushes again. "I just think you'll feel a lot better once you're washed and changed."

She bites her lip but swears she can taste raw egg so she releases it again. She _does_ need to get showered and out of these clothes as soon as possible but washing in Matt's house seems a little strange. It's not that she doesn't trust him – she thinks Matt is lovely; it's just a little…odd.

"It's only going to be weird if you think it's weird," he tells her.

Rachel nods. "I hope you're not insulted about my reluctance to shower at your house. It isn't personal," she insists.

"No, it's fine," he replies and reaches over to open the door for her. "Come on, let's go."

Rachel hops back into the car and Matt drives towards his home.

"How old is your sister?" she enquires, glancing at him.

"Thirteen," he replies, taking a left at Kingston. "Her name's Zoe."

"Do you have any other siblings?"

"Yup. Ben's nine and Naomi's six."

"Oh, there's quite a few of you then?" She wonders what that's like, having brothers and sisters. There have been plenty of times she's wished to have a sibling but sometimes she thinks she loves her Dads so much that she doesn't want to share them.

He chuckles. "There sure is. You're actually quite lucky you're going to be able to jump right into the shower – we normally have to fight over it."

She smiles. She can tell from the warm tone in his voice how much he cares for his family. She likes that.

He pulls over and mutters a soft, "Oh."

"Is there a problem?" she asks worriedly.

"No, not really. It's just that my mom is home." He explains, indicating the silver hybrid parked slightly further down the road. "I forgot she only works in the morning on a Tuesday. It's nothing to worry about though."

Rachel chews the inside of her cheek (now that she can't bite her lip). "Okay," she says uncertainly, releasing her seat belt again.

Matt cuts the engine and climbs out of the car, Rachel following suit. He walks around the vehicle to be next to her and gently pushes the small of her back to make her walk with him.

"Mom?" he calls, after he unlocks the front door and ushers Rachel inside. She reaches down to take her shoes off and puts them neatly against the wall.

"Matthew?" a woman's voice replies and Rachel can hear footsteps coming towards them. Rachel positions herself behind Matt slightly – she's not exactly scared of meeting Matt's mother (she's normally very good at impressing adults actually) but she thinks it would be better to be introduced to Mrs. Rutherford rather than boldly stand in the other woman's house.

A figure appears in the doorway to one of the other rooms. Rachel thinks that the celebrity that best resembles Mrs. Rutherford is the multi-award winning actress Alfre Woodard; specifically her _Desperate Housewives_ role of Betty Applewhite.

"Matthew what are you doing home from school?" Mrs. Rutherford asks as she walks towards her son, giving a speculative look to the petite brunette half-hiding behind him. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes – but nothing major," he adds quickly, seeing the panicked look on his mom's face. "It's just…you know that glee club from Carmel that are our big competition at Regionals?" His mom nods so he carries on. "Well, they threw eggs at Rachel." He motioned to the girl standing next to him and Rachel takes a hesitant step forwards.

"Hello, Mrs. Rutherford. I'm Rachel Berry. I would offer my hand forward as a sign of greeting but it's more than likely got egg on it." She tries not to feel too uncomfortable as Mrs Rutherford's eyes travel over her matted hair and soiled clothes.

"Rachel forgot the key to her house and I said she could get washed and changed here." Matt further explains and he sees his mom nod and smile.

"Of course, Rachel, you're more than welcome to use our facilities." Mrs. Rutherford says warmly and Rachel relaxes slightly.

"Are you sure, Mrs Rutherford? I don't mean to intrude."

"Don't be silly, dear. You're a human omelette! You need to get that stuff off of you. And it's Julie, honey, not Mrs Rutherford."

"Thank you," Rachel breaths, offering a smile.

"I thought she could borrow some of Zoe's clothes until I can take her back to get her key." Matt says and his mom nods.

"Oh, yes. That girl has way too many clothes," Julie chuckles. "You can pick out whatever outfit you like, Rachel, Zoe won't mind a jot; she thinks quite a lot of you, you know."

Rachel's brow creases in confusion. "But I've never met her."

"The whole family saw you at sectionals before Christmas," Julie explains and Matt rolls his eyes. When his mom says his whole family, she means his _whole_ family. He lets slip _once_ that he's in the glee club at school and suddenly his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all want to see New Directions perform at Sectionals. It was quite embarrassing. No, wait. He wasn't embarrassed to be in glee – he was mortified that his parents actually considered renting a school bus to get his family to the event.

"Oh, and did you think New Directions were worthy winners?" Rachel asks.

"Of course you were!" Julie cries. "You were all fantastic – especially after those other two choirs stole your songs. First that and now the eggs. I didn't realise that glee club competitions were so underhanded."

"Show choir is a cut throat world," Rachel sighs. "But I'm pleased to say that our glee club doesn't resort to those sorts of tactics; we let our talent speak for itself!"

Rachel and Matt share a quick glance but neither decides to mention the tyres that Puck and Finn slashed or the numerous espionage trips the girls have made to Carmel.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it," Julie replies, smiling fondly at them both. "Now, we need to get you sorted out." She tells Rachel. "Why don't you tell Matt the combination to your locker and then he can bring your things back here? It saves you having to go back to school again."

"Oh, that does make a lot of sense," Rachel agrees. "You don't mind, do you Matt? My locker is in impeccable order – you just need to retrieve the white purse that's inside."

Matt shrugs. "Yeah, that's no problem."

Julie hands Rachel a piece of paper and a pen for her to write the locker combination on and then she gives it to Matt.

"Right, Matthew I think it's time you went back to school; Rachel and I will be fine on our own." Julie instructs.

Matt hopes that Rachel doesn't mind being left with his mom. There's nothing wrong with his mom, it's just that the two of them have just met and that's probably going to make the situation a little awkward.

It's like Rachel can read his mind though because she says, "Yes, I don't want you to miss out on your education Matt; you've already done so much for me. But you might want to change your shirt first."

He looks down. The shirt has dried after her tears but there's a sort of congealed eggy mess there. "Good point."

He moves towards the stairs and hears his mom ask Rachel, "What on Earth happened to his shirt?"

* * *

A/N So my sister watched 'Funk' yesterday and did she stop liking Jesse? No she didn't! She was all, 'Aw, he looks so sad' And I was like, 'He just smashed an egg in her face! Don't feel sorry for _him_!' And I don't think Jesse loved her anyway. The continuity in the Jesse storyline is all messed up. But, whatever. The show is still awesome.

Anyway, hope you liked the chapter. I'm SO excited for 'Journey'. The sneak peek gives me chills _every_ time.

Lots of love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXx

PS Cookies go to people who can guess what name I've decided to give Matt's Dad considering his Mother's name is Julie…it's Glee related :)


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Glee' world.

Thank you again for the reviews, favourites and alerts. They make me SO happy!

Here's chapter three!

* * *

Matt sinks into his chair just as his Math teacher walks into the room. Mike turns to him in surprise.

"Dude, where've you been? You were supposed to be helping me with my Chem work last period. You know I suck at it."

"Oh, man, I'm sorry." Matt replies. "Something really important came up and I totally forgot about it." He can tell that Mike's going to ask him what happened but luckily their teacher starts the lesson.

Matt's already decided that he's not going to tell anyone about the egg-throwing incident (even though Mike is his best friend and completely trustworthy) because it's not his place; it's up to Rachel.

He hopes she's okay. He knows her confidence is going to take a major knock because of this. Rachel likes to act like she's sure of everything she's doing but Matt's pretty sure that's all it is; an act. He has to admire her inner strength though because she's been the victim of public humiliations for a couple of years now. That also makes him feel guilty because though he never personally threw a Slushie at her, he never tried to make Puck stop either.

But that was going to change now. If he saw Karofsky or Azimio try and bother her again he was going to step up and say/do something to try and stop them. It'll probably make things worse for himself but he can't in good conscience stand aside anymore – he's seen the consequences first hand and it's left him feeling a little hollow.

The bell rang to signify the end of the period and Matt looked around in shock. The lesson was over already? Damn, he'd only managed to answer one question.

Mike gave him a worried glance. "Is everything okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, it's fine," he replies. He doesn't like lying to his friend but he doesn't have much of a choice right now.

There's only one period left until the end of the day and Matt is anxious for it to be over because he wants to get back to check that Rachel's okay.

He and Mike walk into Spanish class and sit in their normal seats at the back. Puck joins them a couple of minutes later looking pretty beat after all the hours he's putting in at Sheets and Things. Matt's thinking about all those times Puck tossed Kurt in the dumpster and threw artificial ice in Rachel's face and he doesn't realise he's staring until Puck says, "Dude, I know my Pucky Puck routine was kickass but you're acting like a fucking homo ogling me like that."

"Whatever," Matt mutters and looks away. He wonders if Puck stopped being such a jerk because of joining glee club, going out with Rachel (even if it was for a few days) or getting slushied by Karofsky. Which one made him view his actions from an alternative perspective?

Brittany wanders into the class looking like she normally does – unsure whether or not she is supposed to be there or not.

"I think a Momma bird dropped her nest in the car lot." She tells the three guys as she takes a seat. "There are lots of smashed eggs on the ground…but no branches from the nest. Maybe the bird laid them as she was flying over."

Mike frowns. "Are they all spread out?"

"No they're just in one place," Brittany explains. "You know actually, I think she was trying to hold them in until she got to the nest but she couldn't and they all sorta fell out of wherever eggs come from inside a bird."

"Oh, maybe. What types of eggs are they?" Mike asks and Matt pretends that he can't hear the conversation even though Brittany is sat right in front of him and Mike is next to him.

"They looked like chicken eggs." She replies and Puck rolls his eyes.

"Chickens can't fly, Britt." He says and she looks confused.

"But how did they get there then?" She asks.

"Sounds like a classic egging to me." Puck replies nonchalantly. "I wonder which dweeb got hit."

Matt opens his mouth to call Puck out on being a jerk but Mr. Schue walks in saying, "Buenas tardes, todo el mundo." And the lesson starts.

Spanish and basketball practice go quickly but he thinks that's probably because he keeps thinking about poor Rachel. He gets shouted at a lot by Coach Tanaka because of his lack of concentration and at one point Mike accidentally throws the ball in his face when he's not looking where he's supposed to be.

"Oh, man, I'm so sorry." Mike apologises but Matt brushes him off. "Are you sure you're okay? You've been acting weird all afternoon."

"Yeah, I'm just depressed about Regionals and stuff." Matt reasons that this is roughly a half truth so he doesn't feel too bad about neglecting to tell Mike what Vocal Adrenaline have done to try and psych them out now.

Mike nods. "I know what you mean. I wanna beat them so bad but I don't know what to do to get us de-funkified."

Matt doesn't think that's a proper word but he doesn't tell Mike that.

After practice is done and Matt has showered and dressed he makes his way over to Rachel's locker. It feels a little weird to be going through someone else's things but she's given him permission so it's not like he's snooping.

She was right when she said her locker is clean; all her books are stacked neatly in alphabetical order, there are no empty food wrappers or drinks bottles and the inside of the door is decorated with Broadway memorabilia and pictures of herself with her Dads and the members of glee club. He takes her purse out and is just about to close the locker when he spots a picture of Rachel and Jesse holding…care bears?

She looks so happy in the photo and it makes Matt feel so bad for her again. He's not sure why but he plucks the photo off of the door and shoves it into his pocket, before shutting the locker and walking towards the exit.

"Dude, wait up!" a familiar voice calls from behind him and Matt almost (_almost_) curses when he turns and sees Mike jogging to catch up with him. He could've sworn that everyone had left before he went to retrieve Rachel's purse from her locker.

Speaking of which, Mike's staring at the purse in shock.

"What are you doing with a girl's purse?" he asks and a dozen excuses flit around Matt's head ('I found it.' 'I made it.' 'A _girl's_ purse? No, this is mine.') but they all seem stupid and he's had enough of telling lies to his friend.

"Look, Mike, I can't tell you; it's not my place." He says and Mike's eyebrows draw together in confusion.

"Does this have something to do with why you've been acting like a zombie all afternoon?" Mike asks and Matt nods.

"I might be able to tell you tomorrow, I dunno. But like I said, it's really not up to me." Matt explains.

"Oh, sure, I understand." Mike says as they start to walk towards the exit again. "Just, let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"Sure, man, thanks." Matt thinks he's got a pretty awesome best friend.

* * *

"So, which items take your fancy?" Julie asks and Rachel lets out a gasp at the sheer volume of clothes enclosed in Zoe's wardrobes. Yes, wardrobe_s_. There are three of them.

"Wow, I honestly don't know where to start," Rachel breathes.

"I'll tell you what, honey. Why don't you just hop in the shower and I'll pick something out for you? I like to think that Zoe gets her good fashion sense from her mother," Julie smiles and Rachel reciprocates.

"Oh, I'm sure she does," Rachel says and Julie laughs.

"Why, aren't you a little charmer" Julie says and Rachel's smile widens. She likes Matt's mom.

"I would appreciate removing the residue of chick foetuses from my person," she admits and Julie's brow creases a little at her turn of phrase.

"Come on, I'll show you to the bathroom."

As the hot water powers into her body Rachel thinks back on how strange this day has been. It had started off with Finn, Noah and Mercedes' quite bizarre rendition of 'Good Vibrations', then there'd been the humiliating and heartbreaking incident with Vocal Adrenaline and now she was having a shower in Matt Rutherford's house while his mother picked out clothes for her to wear. A very odd day, indeed.

She's been trying to not think about what happened in the car lot and mostly, she's succeeded but now that there's no one to distract her she can't get these hurtful thoughts out of her mind.

How could Jesse do that to her? What had she done to deserve that sort of degradation? She honestly doesn't know what had forced him to switch his allegiance back to Vocal Adrenaline and away from her heart. Yes, since the 'Run, Joey, Run' debacle things had been strained but for him to publicly humiliate her in front of his friends she must have done something awful. But she just can't think what. It makes no sense.

The sound of Vocal Adrenaline's laughter echoes in her head along with the sound of the eggs smashing against her head. She can see the hatred in Jesse's eyes and smell the raw egg and taste it on her lip. She's not sure whether it's water, eggs or tears running down her cheeks. They all feel the same.

She shakes her head roughly and tells herself to not think about it; to think about something else. Her brain tries to find something else to fix on and it lands on Matt, her saviour, and she instantly relaxes slightly.

Thank goodness Matt was nearby when Vocal Adrenaline attacked otherwise she doesn't know what she would've done.

He's been incredibly sweet to her; letting her cry on his shoulder even when she was all eggy, giving up his free period to give her a lift home and offering her the use of his family's facilities even though she's never been there before. She doesn't think she's ever going to be able to pay Matt back for his kindness but she'll certainly try.

Rachel switches off the water in the shower and quickly dries herself and puts her underwear back on (luckily they weren't contaminated with egg). She wraps her hair up in a towel and ties another one around her body.

She tentatively opens the bathroom door and pokes her head round the side.

"Um, Julie?" she calls and Mrs Rutherford emerges from another room with a few items of clothing.

"Here you go, Rachel." She says as hands over the clothes. "Come and find me downstairs when you're done."

"Okay," Rachel replies and she disappears behind the bathroom door again.

She pulls on the short denim skirt and buttons up the lavender coloured blouse. Luckily, the clothes aren't too small.

She releases her hair from the towel it was bound in and tries to run her fingers through it. She's going to have to ask Matt's mother if she can borrow a brush otherwise her hair is going to become a messy nightmare when it dries but, she admits, that's a step up from having egg in it.

She finds Julie perusing a magazine in the kitchen and Rachel clears her throat to announce her arrival.

Julie turns around and smiles at her. "Well, that's much better, I must say."

Rachel nods. "I was wondering if there's a hair brush I could borrow. My hair needs a lot of work to keep it in order."

"Of course, dear, it's not a problem." Julie says and she retrieves a brush from one of the drawers in the room.

"Here, sit down," She points to a chair. "I'll brush it for you – make sure all those bits of egg are gone."

"Oh, okay, thank you very much." Rachel says and dutifully takes a seat where Julie indicated.

They're both silent for a couple of minutes as Julie gently tugs the brush through Rachel's hair. Rachel likes to think of herself as independent, responsible, mature beyond her years. But sometimes, it's nice to have someone take care of you.

* * *

A/N Thank you for reading. I hoped you liked the chapter.

The next one should be out next week at some point. I hope you all have a good weekend.

Oh, and I've decided to resurrect my livejournal and twitter so if you want to friend/follow me then please do! I want lots and lots of friends :0)

Please let me know what you thought of the chapter!

Lots of love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXx


End file.
